It was reported in The Eastwood Advertiser yesterday that a council worker named Mr Andrew Bowler has been awarded £60,000 in compensation having suffered severe damage to his hands.  It is said that Mr Bowler’s hands are irrevocably damaged having used vibrating work equipment for over 30 years and having been made to continue working with the same equipment despite developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. 

What this has meant is that, because Mr Bowler has been exposed to excessive amounts of vibration, he has suffered a tingling sensation in his fingers and hands and has complained that his muscles feeling numb and often weak.  As a result he has had had surgery on his hands, but unfortunately this has not been successful and has left him permanently damaged.

Mr Bowler sought the expert advice of personal injury lawyers following his injury; something that we at The Injury Lawyers would always recommend to someone in that position, or in fact anyone with a potential personal injury claim. His representatives argued correctly that Mr Bowler’s employers should have taken precautions when allowing their employees to work with vibrating work equipment.  That is, Mr Bowler should have been made aware of the perils of prolonged usage of vibrating work equipment, and his employers should have done as much as they could to make sure that the usage of this vibrating work equipment was not continuous.  For example, Mr Bowler should have been allowed regular breaks and a change of activities at certain intervals so that he was not exposed to excessive vibrations.
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The Press and Journal has reported that an elderly man was almost killed having been involved in a road traffic accident.  It is said that Mr Mackie was airlifted to hospital with potentially fatal injuries after a trailer collided with his vehicle near Aberdeen having become detached from the tractor that was pulling it.  It was later revealed that Mr Mackie sustained a collapsed lung and had broken both his legs. 

Mr Mackie received surgery and treatment and was kept in hospital for nearly three months.  As a result, Mr Mackie claims that the accident has changed his life, that he now fears driving, and that his days in the garden are now at a premium.  As such Mr Mackie has recently won compensation totalling around £115,000 for his injuries and other losses resulting from the accident.

Road traffic accidents are unfortunately a part of everyday life in the modern world we live in.  Whether they are major or minor, people can sustain all sorts of injuries in road traffic accidents.  Where the accident occurs through no fault of your own, or even if you are partly to blame, it is likely that you may be able to make a claim for compensation.  It is important then that you seek expert advice from a personal injury lawyer with experience of dealing with road traffic accident claims.
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Slipping up can be the butt of many a joke; this could be due to the many a used comedy scene whereby a person may slip on an item such as a banana skin. This being said however, slipping and falling in reality is no laughing matter. At The Injury Lawyers we have seen many a serious injury caused through what may at first seem to be a minor slip.

Slipping can cause injuries such as soft tissue damage, lacerations, head injuries and even broken bones. A hit to the head caused by a slip can even cause someone to be knocked unconscious and later cause concussion.

Slipping hazards can be anywhere. It may be that you are/ have been on a night out, maybe dancing in a night club, and slipped on a spillage negligently left uncleaned on the floor. It may be that you are completing your weekly shop and have slipped on a spillage in an aisle which has been left un-cleaned, not sectioned off, and unattended. Many of our clients have slipped on floors either at work or even in restaurants whereby the floors have been cleaned and a wet floor sign has not been placed at the area warning people of the hazard. All of the above could potentially make for a claim for compensation.
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At first glance you may think you know what no win no fee means. But when it comes down to a situation when you have had an accident and it was not your fault, and you really think about the term, there may be a few questions which you may have.

Many of our clients upon approaching The Injury Lawyers with a potential claim ask questions such as:

How do you get paid if I win my case?

How do you get paid if I lose my case?
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Many of our clients here at The Injury Lawyers are aware they can claim compensation for their injuries, but may not be aware they can claim for other losses. Upon approaching firms you should be given advice regarding the sorts of losses you can claim for after an accident.

Law firms tend to advise of these losses early on in the claim to allow the client to gather up past evidence of losses and save any ongoing evidence for future reference. What this evidence takes the form of depends upon the type of loss which is being claimed.

I have listed some of the more important and common types of loss below:
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The motorway can be a scary place to drive. With cars travelling at such high speeds and in close proximity to each other there is no doubt that confidence and elevated levels of concentration are needed. Many people aim to avoid motorways – always ensuring to set any sat nav to ‘avoid motorways’ preferring to take a longer route instead. This being said however there are people who enjoy the motorway because of its ease to get places. Whatever your thoughts on the motorway I would hazard a guess that most would not anticipate having an accident whilst travelling on one that was not their fault.

There can be many reasons why accidents can happen on motorways. I have discussed a couple below.

Undertaking

When I say undertaking I mean going past someone in a slower lane. This is not only illegal but also dangerous. Undertaking could cause a situation where a driver changes lane from the fast into the middle lane in front of another car. The driver then doesn’t see or expect another car to come down a slower lane and change into the middle lane, potentially causing a collision. In this type of situation the person undertaking would usually be at fault as they should not be undertaking. In order to avoid such accidents occurring drivers should not undertake and should use the motorway correctly by driving down the slowest lane possible.
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At The Injury Lawyers we have many clients approaching us after being involved in a bus or a coach accident.  Many of them are unsure if they have a claim and or who the claim may be against.  This lack of knowledge surrounding this area of personal injury may be due to the large number of accidents focused at road traffic accidents in general for car accidents.

If you have been involved in an accident whilst on a bus or a coach you may have a claim for compensation.  If the bus/coach was involved in a road traffic accident then you may have a claim against the driver of the car at fault. If the accident was the fault of the bus driver you may have a claim against the bus company. With regard to dealing with motor insurance claims your specialist personal injury solicitor will correspond with the insurance company of the party at fault on your behalf.

The above being said, accidents whilst on buses or coaches may not just be a due to a road traffic accident. Many clients come to The Injury Lawyers and we successfully claim compensation for the client falling over on a bus. In order to have a potential claim a fall must be the fault of the driver or another road user. There are many potential reasons for falling over whilst on a bus/coach; it may be that the bus jerked violently to a stop, thus knocking you over, or you may have slipped on a spillage or tripped on a trip hazard in an aisle.
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A fall from a height can occur in many different types of situations and in many different professions. You may think that just because a receptionist falls from a chair whilst changing a light bulb, or a librarian falls from ladders putting a book on a shelf, that these types of accident cannot be claimed for. This thought process may be due to thinking that it is only in the obvious types of careers such as builders, roofers, or scaffolders where height is a normal, daily part of their job that claims regarding falling from a height can be successfully made.

This, however, is not the case; it may be true that these types of claims are more common in the careers mentioned above – but anyone in any career can possibly claim compensation for a fall from a height which caused them injury and was not their fault.

Employers have a duty to protect their employees from any risks to their Health and Safety as far as is reasonably possible. They must adhere to strict Health and Safety Regulations, and particularly, in the case of this blog, the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The topic of this blog need not be on the ins and outs of this legislation.  However, what can be taken from it is that employers should plan a working at height situation carefully – it should be properly supervised and the correct equipment for the job provided. This equipment must also be properly maintained and stored with the users of it trained in how to utilise the equipment correctly.
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I read an interesting story in the Daily Mail today.  It involves a man named Mark Noble who was forced to become a wheelchair user after sustaining severe injuries in a Road Traffic Accident back in 2003, and obtained compensation in the sum of £3.4million, only for the other side to try and reclaim some £2million of the compensation they paid out. 

It is reported that Direct Line insurance company had paid Mr Noble £3.4million to compensate him for his injuries, then proceeded to keep a close eye on him and when they saw that he had been able to regain some of the movement in his legs again and then took him to court to try and recover some of the compensation they paid out.  However, the Judge in this case dismissed Direct Line’s attempt to regain their monies.  Instead the judge stated that ‘Mr Noble was determined to walk unaided.  He did not dishonestly conceal from the court or the expert witnesses his then trust state of disability, or dishonestly emphasise his disability.’

The Daily Mail reports that Direct Line insurance had hired a few private investigators to monitor Mr Noble’s movements in the hope of demonstrating that he had exaggerated his injuries and therefore should not be entitled to all of the compensation he was awarded.  It was said that a neighbour had tipped them off that Mr Noble was able to walk again.  Indeed, Direct Line’s private investigators did find that Mr Noble could walk, use power drills, lift weight and drive a vehicle.  Mr Noble had been awarded the vast sum of over £3million not only to compensate him for his injuries but also the loss of earnings he suffered as a result of being unable to carry on with his job and for the loss of enjoyment stemming from his inability to play rugby.  However, the judge in this case found that the fact that Mr Noble had regained some of his lost movement was down to his sheer will power to get back to his previous state; not because he had faked or exaggerated his injuries.  As his wife said: ‘The reason he is able to walk now is because he worked really, really hard – through sheet bloody-mindedness – to get where he is today’.
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Whiplash is a highly unpleasant and frustrating injury to suffer from. It can make a person unable to complete or enjoy their normal daily tasks, such as going to work, socialising, or completing housework. Because the injury is not as plain to see as a broken leg or a laceration, some can write it off as being minor and think that it is nothing to worry about. This is simply not the case – and absolutely the opposite of what we believe here at The Injury Lawyers.

At The Injury Lawyers we have a great deal of experience with whiplash sufferers – we hear about their injuries and the debilitating effect it is having on their life, and we are able to easily help them out. So we have nothing but the utmost respect and sympathies to whiplash sufferers. You may say sympathy is no good – I want action and assistance with bringing my claim against the person/people responsible for my injury. This is exactly what we at The Injury Lawyers are able to assist with as well.

At The Injury Lawyers we are not only able to deal with your claim for compensation, but we may also be able to arrange private treatment for your injuries; this means you may not have to wait on the NHS waiting lists. This treatment could range from physiotherapy to osteopathy. For many whiplash sufferers the treatment side of things can be equally as important as the compensation side, as many sufferers simply want their life to return to normal as quickly as possible.
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